Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for using a service that a network device provides.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a case where processing is transferred between websites, the website that invokes a function has needed to know a function invoking method, such as an application programming interface (API) or Representational State Transfer (REST) interface, of the website that provides the function. Accordingly, to implement cooperation between different websites, the website that invokes a function has needed to perform its individual processing according to the respective invocation protocols.
There is also a scheme that allows cooperation with any web service (or any web application) without using a dedicated API. For example, there has been proposed a scheme called “Web Intents” for loosely coupling a web application that receives a service and a web application that provides the service by using runtime delayed binding to implement cooperation between the two web applications.
Web Intents allows a service provided on an Internet web page to be provided to users. Therefore, users cannot select a printer or the like connected to a local area network (LAN) in the same way as when selecting a service provided on an Internet web page.
Techniques for solving this issue include a technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-196356. In this technique, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is used to perform a local service search within a LAN, thus more extensively presenting, to users, options of an information processing service and enabling users to use various devices.
In the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-196356, with regard to a search for local services, a Web Intents service is searched for with Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) that is extended in Web Intents. Since a search result is not registered with a user agent (UA), it is necessary to search for a local service every time an Invocation in Web Intents is received. Depending on circumstances, a great number of local services exist, so that the search result may include unnecessary local services for a user. Under such a circumstance, unnecessary local services for a user may be discovered by every search and may be displayed in a service list. Therefore, it may become hard for the user to find, from the service list, a service that the user wants to use.
Therefore, there has been desired a scheme that allows the user to readily select and use various services provided by network devices, such as services on the Internet and local services.
Furthermore, unlike services provided via the Internet, local services may vary in the state of provision of services. For example, in some cases, a communication error occurs because a device that provides a local service is powered off, or a service cannot be provided in such a case where the service cannot be executed due to the shortage of consumables. Therefore, even if a local service is registered with a UA, when the local service is selected by the user from the service list, the changed state of provision of the local service may make it impossible to use the local service.